“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

— Ernest Hemingway

Last night while browsing on Netflicks I saw a flick with Mila Kunis I’d never heard of and watched it on a whim.

The movie is “The Luckiest Girl Alive” based on a novel by Jessica Knoll. It’s about a writer who’s on top of the world and about to realize her dream of marrying money and class who suddenly has to come to terms with a past that includes gang rape, surviving a school shooting, and killing a man with a knife.

It’s very skillfully put together and though I can’t review it without spoilers I was enthralled by the story, even though I have serious reservations about the portrayal of the shooters as bullied kids seeking revenge.

But what struck me was the subtext of a writer finding her real voice.

Mila Kunis’ character is a complete phony who has learned to make her way in a world she wasn’t born into by saying what people want to hear.

She makes her living writing high-class porn for a women’s magazine but has higher aspirations which come to a head when she writes the first draft of her tragic backstory.

Her editor tells her it’s crap, but could be great if she’d be honest.

“A writer is honest, or not. As a woman is chaste, or not.” (Hemmingway again.)

Which brought me to the subject of advice to aspiring writers.

Writing is one of those things like learning a foreign language, martial arts, or starting a business. A lot more people want the end result than are willing to take the intervening steps.

But ah the rewards! Not financial of course, more people who undertake any of those manage to just hang on than strike it rich. But those who do earn the respect people with far more worldly success.

When I started I had five goals: to write, to get published, to get paid for it, to support myself at it, and to make a lot of money at it. I can proudly say I achieved the first four.

I also found out each step is an order of magnitude more difficult than the last.

So here’s the two best pieces of advice about writing I’ve come across.

The first was from SF writer Robert Heinlein’s address to the graduating class of the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

He broke it down into five steps: first write! Then finish what you write, never rewrite, submit what you write, keep submitting what you write.

He explained never rewrite, but cut ruthlessly, trim the fat. And if what you submit is terrible, submit it under a pseudonym for the cheap markets.

Stephen King’s was even simpler.

“You lift weights everyday you get big muscles. You write everyday you get good at it.”

What would I add?

To begin with, don’t disdain writing to order. I started professionally writing “adverticles,” advertisements thinly disguised as articles.

It’s paid practice. Emphasis on paid. If you can’t bring yourself to write regularly for practice, write for a paycheck.

About finding your voice, read writers who speak to your inner life and imitate. Don’t fear being “derivative,” and imitation will turn into inspiration.

Write for yourself and no one else. But I guarantee your inner life is like many other people’s and you can give them your voice. But be aware that writing is a whole ‘nother thing from marketing, and that I’m afraid I can’t advise you on.

— Steve Browne is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent